The new "upgrade" to iBooks may be the last straw for me. Yes, I'm one of those odd people who liked the book shelf and liked the simulated book. With that all gone, I'm not sure that there is any reason to stick with iBooks ... with one exception.

I have a ton of books in my iBooks library on my iPad (sorted into several collections). The idea of deleting all of those books from iBooks and then importing them back into Marvin is a bit ... daunting. So here's my query: Is there an easy (and quick or automatic....) way of moving books from iBooks to Marvin? And is there a way to do it without having to sync the iPad to iTunes and then move things back to Marvin (I've taken to just emailing the books to my iPad; I rarely sync my iPad anymore).

Not sure how you transfer books from iBooks, but once you figure it out, I would recommend you begin using Calibre. It is a full featured ebook management program that will not only maintain a library of your ebooks, but allow you to transfer them to almost any ereader (Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Sony, iBooks, Marvin, etc., etc.). The beauty is that when you decide to change ereaders, all your books are safe and sound in one place. I switched from Kobo to iBooks to Marvin with ease.

Then, simply drag and drop all your books from iBooks folder and put them into Marvin's folder. It's easier and quicker than messing around with iTunes, although it's a similar procedure.

What I do: I put all my books into cloud software such as Dropbox or SugarSync, and then you can load them into Marvin (or any other e-reader) on any of your iDevices using the respective cloud app and the "Open in..." option. (More precisely, I let SugarSync mirror my Calibre folder, but using Calibre is not a necessity -- just an option.)

Emailing the books to yourself is another good option, but perhaps annoying if there are many books to email. (And I'm not sure if iBooks lets you email books from within iBooks; Marvin does allow emailing books from within Marvin.)

I originally used iTunes and moved a lot of books that way. Then I gave up. Now I email them to an iPad-dedicated email account and load them into iBooks from my mail app. I do use Calibre to manage my library, convert books, and so forth.

I'm intrigued by the i-funbox concept. Do you mean that you can use that program to explore your iPad and then drag the books from the iBooks folder to Marvin? If so, then that sounds like the easiest method.

Now I email them to an iPad-dedicated email account and load them into iBooks from my mail app.

If it's an IMAP email account where you don't delete old messages, for example, you could use the same archived email messages to load the books into Marvin. But, doing that one-by-one might be annoying and inefficient if there are many of them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MSWallack

I do use Calibre to manage my library, convert books, and so forth.

Well, then depending on the size of your Library folder in Calibre, you could let it be mirrored in cloud software like Dropbox or SugarSync or Copy.com, and load the books into Marvin that way. Dropbox is directly integrated in Marvin and allows you to display and load up to 1000 books into Marvin. Although, truth be told, I like to keep my books in my cloud software (the Calibre folder which is mirrored online), instead of directly loading them onto the device. As long as every book is only a tap away in the cloud app, that's good enough for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MSWallack

I'm intrigued by the i-funbox concept. Do you mean that you can use that program to explore your iPad and then drag the books from the iBooks folder to Marvin?

Yes, iFunBox is a file explorer, laying bare the folders and files structure on the iDevice, without the need of a jailbreak. Not sure if drag & drop directly inside iFunBox would work, but you can definitely easily copy or move a large number of files between any two locations on the iDevice, even if it necessitated a temporary copying to the regular computer in between. The iFunBox interface is straightforward and uncluttered, unlike the convoluted iTunes interface where it seems you need to dig deep within many submenus until you get where you want to go.

It looks like there may be several options. And now that I've played with Marvin a bit more, I'm going to have to dig a bit deeper to see what's going to work best, especially as I really like the idea of being able to add additional metadata (like a description) to what Marvin will show me.

If it's an IMAP email account where you don't delete old messages, for example, you could use the same archived email messages to load the books into Marvin. But, doing that one-by-one might be annoying and inefficient if there are many of them.

Well, then depending on the size of your Library folder in Calibre, you could let it be mirrored in cloud software like Dropbox or SugarSync or Copy.com, and load the books into Marvin that way. Dropbox is directly integrated in Marvin and allows you to display and load up to 1000 books into Marvin. Although, truth be told, I like to keep my books in my cloud software (the Calibre folder which is mirrored online), instead of directly loading them onto the device. As long as every book is only a tap away in the cloud app, that's good enough for me.

Yes, iFunBox is a file explorer, laying bare the folders and files structure on the iDevice, without the need of a jailbreak. Not sure if drag & drop directly inside iFunBox would work, but you can definitely easily copy or move a large number of files between any two locations on the iDevice, even if it necessitated a temporary copying to the regular computer in between. The iFunBox interface is straightforward and uncluttered, unlike the convoluted iTunes interface where it seems you need to dig deep within many submenus until you get where you want to go.

This sounds like a great option. However when I open ifunbox I can browse my iBooks library but I cannot see any books to transfer via drag and drop to my PC desktop so I can then load them into Marvin. Am I doing something wrong?

Yep I can see my books in iBooks no problem in iTunes but when I open ifunbox the folders are there but I cannot see any physical books if you get my meaning. Also I presume the books will not work in Marvin as they will be DRM locked???

Yep I can see my books in iBooks no problem in iTunes but when I open ifunbox the folders are there but I cannot see any physical books if you get my meaning. Also I presume the books will not work in Marvin as they will be DRM locked???

I see the same things and none of my iBooks are DRM. They are all imported by me. Apple seems to hide them even from ifunbox. Other readers are fine.

I see the same things and none of my iBooks are DRM. They are all imported by me. Apple seems to hide them even from ifunbox. Other readers are fine.

Dale

Yep I think it's an apple thing. I think once they are populated in iBooks there they stay. At least for me anyway. I stopped using the iBook store because I find their bookstore way more expensive than other e-book websites. But I'm still stuck with the few I have bought which I really want to get into Marvin but I guess I'll just have to just read them in the iBooks app. 😒

I'm looking for information which would help me enable Marvin to read my eBook library in iBooks. From what I've read above, this cannot be done, and I'll have to delete from iBooks and reload into Marvin, using Calibre. Do I have any other choice, given limitations imposed by Apple and iBooks?